


The Jury Gives This One 10/10 For Drama

by zeuswrites



Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: F/M, First Dates, Humor, Misunderstandings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-10
Updated: 2014-10-10
Packaged: 2018-02-20 14:55:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2432840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zeuswrites/pseuds/zeuswrites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On one hand, their first date could have gone better. On the other - at least it was memorable.</p>
<p>Written for a Skyrim kink meme prompt, <a href="http://skyrimkinkmeme.livejournal.com/4580.html?thread=9983716#t9983716">dates</a>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Jury Gives This One 10/10 For Drama

“Say, how about we share that drink tonight?” Marise said as he was passing by, and Shadr’s stomach flipped upside down.  
  
“I would love to”, he wheezed, and Marise smiled at him warmly, wiping deer blood off of her strong hands.  
  
\---  
  
He sat down at the first available table, then shot back up onto his feet and hurried to pull the chair back for Marise. He felt his cheeks burn as she cocked her head at him kindly before sitting down.  _Were it a riding contest,_  he thought,  _I would have already lost all my points._  
  
They sat in silence for a smidge too long, looking around and smiling awkwardly whenever their eyes met by accident. Talen-Jei approached them at last to take their orders, and Shadr discreetly wiped his clammy hands on his trousers.  
  
“So,” Marise started mercifully after Talen-Jei walked off, “how was your day?”  
  
“Aaah, good? Good?” his voice sounded squeaky in his ears, and he coughed. “We may have a buyer for Goldmane. She’s been at our stables for a while, I’ll be happy to see her go to good hands.”  
  
“That’s a sweet name.”  
  
“Sweet name for a sweet horse” Shadr agreed, a little more relaxed. “She’s a little slow, but gentle as a lamb. She would make a great horse to teach children, or perhaps for an elder. Learns fast, too.”  
  
“Speaking of which, you said you’ve been riding ever since you were a little boy, haven’t you?” she caught the thread. “Do you remember your first horse?”  _She’s so sweet,_  he thought doofily. His nervousness dwindled as he looked into her deep red eyes and saw nothing but kindness in them. In his fear he had forgotten that, after all, he was in the company of a friend. She wasn’t an indifferent judge looking for any mistakes and blunders; she was kind, patient Marise, who went out of her way to spend an evening with him.  
  
The conversation flowed more freely after that, and quite freely indeed after their third bottle of mead. The inn was getting empty and cozy, the atmosphere between them more intimate as the normal tavern sounds and conversations around them went down, one by one. They talked of each other’s distant homes, gossiped about other citiziens, and shared their favorite songs and stories. Marise’s cheeks were flushed purple as she laughed at his story of accidentally letting one of the horses into the city, and finding it dining on the vegetable stand. She covered her lips with her thick fingers, eyes flickering through eyelashes, and in that moment, he was absolutely sure there was no prettier woman in all of Skyrim.   
  
His stomach did a double flip, and he knew it was time, just the way he knew when to make the horse shake its mane to finish off his performance. He felt the little box in his pocket as he would a lump or red-hot iron.  
  
“Marise”, he started awkwardly, lacing his hands on the table. She allowed her laughter to die down, and she leaned in, looking buzzed and happy, blinking at him. He lowered his eyes at his hands, too terrified to look at her as he spoke. “I hope it’s not too forward of me, but… I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone I liked as much as I like you.”  
  
“You’re a great friend, you’re smart, you’re kind” he blurted out at his hands, the speech he had practiced with a broom earlier that day forgotten. “You are hard-working and honest, and you always have a good word for anyone, and a coin for a beggar. I like everything about you, your eyes, and your voice, I even like t-the way you chop meat-- and there’s something I want to give you.” he pulled out the box from his pocket and slid it over the table, closing his eyes and inhaling sharply as she lifted the lid. She gasped; he finally raised his eyes, unable to stand the uncertainty for a moment longer, and the sight before him stole the breath from his lungs.

Marise was staring at the bracelet with awe, one hand covering her mouth, the other holding the precious item in its palm.  
  
And behind her stood Sapphire, looking at the trinket with an unreadable expression, and a very readable cross of her arms.  
  
“Oh Shadr, it’s beautiful!” Marise whispered. “It must have cost a small fortune!”  
  
“Oh” Shadr swallowed hard. “Not at… well, I mean… glad… you like it?” Sapphire didn’t budge an inch, and he chuckled nervously as Marise put the bracelet on, stretching her arm out to give an even better view of it to the thief. Sapphire’s eyes looked it over, unimpressed, then raised themselves at Shadr’s face again. With a small raise of her eyebrows and a slow blink which spoke  _ugh,_  she left the Inn, quiet as a ghost.  
  
“Thank you so much, Shadr. It’s a wonderful gift.”   
  
“You deserve it”, he smiled, teeth chattering. “Marise…” He grabbed her shoulders and leaned in. Her eyes fluttered close and her lips puckered up a little before he added: “I’ll be back with you in a moment.”  
  
\---  
  
“Sapphire!” he shouted after her, catching up to her at the entrance to the Ratway. She turned around with an eyeroll so hard it guided her whole head.  
  
“Quite a trinket you got her, Shadr” she said coldly. “How did a stable hand who was so desperate and so broke just earlier today afford one, I wonder?”  
  
“I’ve… I’ve been saving up for it for months” he said. He was shaking in fear as he said: “please don’t bother her about it.”  
  
“Bother her? Why would I?” she smiled like a wolf. “But tell her to mind that bracelet. It’s rather flashy for Riften. Next time buy her a locket she can hide under her clothes, idiot.”  
  
“Stay away from her”, he blurted out before he realized what he was doing. All blood drained from his limbs as Sapphire’s eyes narrowed.  
  
“What did you just say?”  
  
“I… I won’t let you take it. I won’t let you hurt her because of my debt.”Sapphire took a step in his direction. “I will-- defend her from you, if I have to. I will defend her from anyone--”  
  
Without ceremony, Sapphire planted her boot against his chest and pushed him into the stinking canal. The shock of finding himself underwater made him trash uselessly for a moment, before grabbing at the stone edge of the canal and poking his head back to the surface with a rasp.  
  
“Listen up here.” Sapphire crouched next to him, sighing. He wheezed, inhaling some of the canal scum, and pushed off as far as he could while still keeping the tips of his fingers on the sidewalk, in case she tried to push his head underwater. She propped her elbows on her knees and joined the tips of her fingers together, like a bored governess. “A twiny little pant-pisser like you won’t be able to defend her from a baby skeever, Shadr. Oh, don’t get me wrong, you two are cute.” The word sounded unpleasant on her lips. “And I’m quite impressed that you aren’t completely gutless. But it’s pointless, because…”  
  
“Shadr?” Marise’s voiced carried from behind them, and they both looked up. She was standing two doors from them, staring at them with eyes round like septims and hands clutching at her chest. Shadr opened his mouth to shout at her to hide, but before he could, her shock turned into anger.

“You…” she bristled and tensed like a werewolf ready to pounce, and she started walking towards them. “You s-stay away from him!”  
  
“Aren’t you two perfect for each other” Sapphire said drily, getting up without haste. “We were just having a little chat about your pretty new bracelet.”  
  
Marise walked up to her, fists clenched and lip quivering. The two women looked at each other for a moment; Sapphire’s hand twitched.. “Listen, stupid…” she said, and Marise burst into flames.  
  
“Holy SHIT!” Sapphire jumped back, daggers appearing in her hands, eyeing the flaming figure with apprehension.   
  
“MARISE!” Shadr screamed, scrambling out of the water, forgetting the fear for himself, now only able to think of her. He lunged in her direction.  
  
“I will not let you bully him!” The dark elf screamed, pointing at the thief. “If I ever catch you bothering him again, I, I will show you how a D-Dunmer fights!” Shadr grabbed her shoulders, ignoring the sizzling of his clothes. The fire died down and moments later she was herself again, breathing heavily and with sweat dripping down her brow, but whole and unscathed. Shadr wrapped his arms around her and pressed her head to his chest in relief.  
  
“I’m so sorry” he said helplessly. “I owe Sapphire money, and she wanted to take the bracelet, but I won’t let her. It’s yours, and I will not anyone hurt you!”  
  
“Oh, Shadr!” Marise looked up at him with tears in her eyes. “I don’t care about the bracelet. If she will leave you alone for it, I will give it to her. I care more about you than--”  
  
“By the gods, you two are making me sick!” Sapphire yelled to the heavens, slapping her hands at her thighs. “You inbred, you don’t owe me money!”  
  
Shadr blinked at Marise and turned his head towards Sapphire. “...I don’t?”  
  
“A traveler convinced me to drop the debt. Someone who, unlike you two” she eyed the soggy couple with disgust, “could actually pose a problem. I was trying to tell you when your butcher girl rushed in. I decided you aren’t worth the trouble, though right now I’m starting to reconsider.”  
  
“Someone…” Shadr and Marise looked at each other in shock. Sapphire wiped her hands on her pants, as if she felt them soiled by the whole ordeal.  
  
“Best of luck, you two” she spat. “You really are perfect for each other. Either of you try talking to me again, I will gut you like fish and throw your corpses in the lake.” She disappeared in the entrance to the Ratway, slamming the door hard enough for splinters to flake off.  
  
Shadr and Marise stood there on the quiet, dark street for a good minute, blinking around them, singed and smelly. They were still buzzing with adrenaline, but they were also starting to feel very, very embarrassed.  
  
“Shadr” Marise said quietly, then looked up at him. Even with soot on her face, in the dim lights of the street lanterns, she was gorgeous. “You were really going to fight her for me?”  
  
“Were  _you_  going to fight her for  _me?_ ” Shadr asked back, and then they both erupted into raucous laughter. Marise howled with her head against Shadr’s chest, and he rocked her back and forth, relieved, lovestruck, and more than a little shocked. Finally they parted, wheezing like foundered horses, fingers still twined, grinning at each other like madmen.  
  
\---  
  
The entry door squeaked, and Hofgrir sat up, instantly awake.   
  
“How did it go, boy?” he called out in excitement, coming into the hallway. “Did you… Mara’s mercy!”  
  
Shadr looked at him from the front door with a loony grin, teeth chattering from cold. His shirt was singed, and so were his eyebrows and eyelashes; he was dripping wet, with a piece of waterweed stuck to his forehead. And the smell - by gods, the smell.  
  
“Amazing” he said. “She’s the one, Hofgrir. She’s the one!”  
  
The older man stared, slack-jawed, as his apprentice shambled into his room, leaving puddles of canal scum in his wake.   
  



End file.
